Novel Tools for Assessing Student Discussions: Modeling threads and participant roles using speech act and course topic analysis

This paper describes new techniques for assessing pedagogical discourse via threaded discussions that are based on an analysis of speech acts and course topics. The context is an undergraduate computer science course. We use speech act analysis to assess the effect of instructor participation on student participation and to create thread profiles that help identify threads characterized by agreement, debate, and unresolved issues, such as threads that may have unanswered questions. For the first time, we integrate an analysis of course topics to help identify discussions of particular interest or confusion.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: AIED
• Authors: Jihie Kim, Erin Shaw, Grace Chern, Roshan Herbert
• Keywords: AIED 2007, Artificial Intelligence, Course Topics, Speech Act, Speech Act Analysis